The Big Announcement: We haven’t sent out a regular digest in a few weeks. If we had, it would have been about one thing: Our big May 4th announcement. We’re thrilled to have finally announced the upcoming plans and pricing, and we’ll be working to bring you as much information about the changes coming in July. We’ll be updating our News & Views About Change regularly if you want to follow some of the highlights and new things we’ve seen. We’ll also keep you updated via this weekly Best of the Week digest.

Ning Network slow-downs: We’ve had reports from Creators of slow-loading pages and even some folks who are having trouble accessing their Ning Networks. The issue seems to be sporadic and only affecting some Ning Networks (it was visible on Creators yesterday for a bit). Our engineers are working non-stop to identify the root cause and lessen the impact on Creators and their members. You can check and/or follow both the Ning Status Blog and the Ning Status Twitter feed for updates. We’ll also do our best to keep you informed on Creators.

New spam tools: We’ll soon be rolling out more ammo in our fight against spam: 3 New Ways to Stop Spammers and Verify Your Members. Some of these tools echo previous product requests from Creators. So, for example, we’re happy to be delivering things like a customized quiz for prospective members. That tool will help protect your Ning Network against spambots, but it will also let you ask “in-the-know” questions to help you attract quality new members.

Jeff, sorry to be so late in responding to you. You're right, it's not completely possible to create exactly this fellow's idea, but I think it's a great idea. I sometimes include "food for thought" type of articles from around the Internet that I run across about community-related stuff. We will soon (it's built, just waiting to be released) will have a special Quiz question you can ask new members that is sort of similar. You can have folks who are in-the-know about your Ning Network's subject answer a special question you set up. Hope this helps.

Great idea to turn the sign-up form into an "Application form." But where can I edit it? Nothing in Manage, nothing in Help, nothing in the Language Editor seem to be it. (Rich doesn't say; he calls it a "registration form" and nothing in those places called that, either.)